Hoghill Crit, 12 Apr 2025

After what has been (and still is) a stressful few months with my university dissertation, I was looking forward to taking a break and getting a race in the legs. Overall, I’d say I’ve had a better winter training than I have done in the past couple of years, as I’ve had better health (no winter illnesses and no injury) and I’ve mixed my training up by focusing on my off the bike training too. I’ve been motivated more to do strength training in the gym as well as mixing up training with some running. The last month training has been a little less consistent for me as I’ve had some bike mechanical issues which meant I had to resort to running, but my legs began to feel like themselves again.

Going into the race my aim was to stick with the lead group and see how the race unfolds and if it ends in the bunch sprint then I’ll need to be positioned well for the finish. I had a good start and was top 4 into the first corner and positioned well in the first lap. It was a fast race with attacks each lap, and I struggled on the flat part of the circuit. My confidence took a few laps to build up on the hairpins, but I felt good on the climb.

After 20 minutes into the race I unfortunately lost touch of the front group, after several attacks started to split the race. I managed to catch a lone rider just up the road and tried to work together, which didn’t work too well. For about 3 laps she was dropping me on the flat, and I would drop her on the climb, and we did not catch the other riders who were in the distance. With 2 laps to go I lost the rider who was with me, as I was struggling to match her power on the flat sectors on the circuit. I then did a solo TT to just empty the tank and leave everything out there.

Although not my best race, I was happy to be back racing again. It was good to have an indication of where I’m physically at and what areas I need to focus on in my training.

Amy Harvey